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Editorial

Sangjog, the voice of BCCP, has been continuing to come up with its own image since last 25 years. Keeping the readers’ preferences in mind, some changes have been brought in its contents and design. At the same time, e-Version of Sangjog is being published.  BCCP aims to connect its readers to various communication programs through this. In the strategic communication process, emphasis is given upon the individual’s environment, social norms and values, feelings, views etc.
 
We hope that the Sangjog bridges the people of the 21st century with the strategic communication process. Therefore in an age of ICT we expect the Sangjog to serve as an important repository of BCC related information.
 
Best wishes 

BKMI’s contribution to National SBCC Landscape

BKMI’s contribution to National SBCC Landscape
In August 2016, an evaluation team from the global Health Communication Capacity Collaborative and an international expert on Outcome Harvesting, a qualitative research methodology, came to Bangladesh.
 
The team facilitated an engaging exercise where BKMI harvested 66 outcomes since October 2013. All these outcomes were later, objectively substantiated with internal and external sources by an independent Consultant.

Outreach Activity under CACVP

o protect children’s rights and to raise awareness on the types of violence against children, BCCP conducted some outreach activities in Dhaka, Khulna and Chittagong City Corporation under the Community Action for Child Protection against Violence Project (CACVP). These include community meeting, video show, Training of Teachers (ToT) and interactive theater show.
 
Government officials, guardians, NGO representatives, children/adolescents, civil society and the media were present at these community meetings and the video shows were attended by the slum dwellers of these city corporations. Representatives from public and private organizations and institutions, who work with children, took part in the Training of Trainers (ToT). Organizing interactive theater show are also going on in the slums of these three City Corporation.
 

Art Competition held

An Art Competition among the school children was organized as a part of BCC activities to raise awareness about participatory forestry among the people of Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project (CRPARP) project areas.
 
The objective of the Art Competition was to increase awareness among school students about importance and benefits of forestry; and inspire them for afforestation and forest conservation.
 
The students of six to ten classes in seven districts of project areas took part in the art competition. Those districts are Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Feni, Noakhali, Barisal, Bhola and Patuakhali. A Justice Panel was formed at local level who have vast knowledge about the issue and paintings.
 
Certificates and prizes were given to first, second and third place scorers Divisional Forest Officers of respective areas distributed the prizes to the top scorers of the competition.

Dissemination of Field Worker & Program Manager eToolkit & eLearning courses through different tier

A set of Digital Resources to strengthen Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) in Health, Population and Nutrition sector of Bangladesh is developed by Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative (BKMI) project. The resources include an SBCC eToolkit for Field Workers and Program Managers and Planners working on Health, Population and Nutrition sector, an eLearning course in Bangla with eight modules for field workers, two eLearning courses for SBCC program managers and planners (PM). The PM eLearning courses are on Message and Material Development (MMD) and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) for Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC). All are available online, free of charge. The eToolkit for Field Workers is also available offline and as an Android app (BD HPN Toolkit). The both eToolkits are migrated under the domain of Directorate General of Health Services of Bangladesh. The FW eToolkit is available at http://etoolkits.dghs.gov.bd/, and the PM eToolkit is available at http://etoolkits.dghs.gov.bd/toolkits/bangladesh-program-managers.
 
A national level event was organized to disseminate the Digital Resources among different stakeholders. Later a series of events were organized at different levels for the promotion and better utilization of the resources. As part of this, the Program Managers eToolkit and eLearning course were disseminated in different prominent universities of Bangladesh. Orientations were given on both Monitoring and Evaluation and Message and Material Development courses. The universities were Bangladesh University of Health Science, Daffodil International University, State University of Bangladesh, Green University, James P Grant School of Public Health and Dhaka University. The orientations were given to more than 300 participants including faculty members and students. Besides these, the courses were also disseminated among different relevant workshop and training participants. Till now around 250 participants completed PM eLearning course and got certificate.
 
At the same time, BKMI took an initiative in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services and Directorate General of Family Planning to disseminate the FW eLearning course and eToolkit at frontline level and visited four major divisions- Dhaka, Rajshashi, Chittagong, and Sylhet. Community health workers including Health Assistant (HA), Assistant Health Inspector (AHI), Family Welfare Assistant (FWA), and Family Welfare Visitor (FWV) participated in orientations with their android TAB distributed by GOB. Government level officials along with BKMI team had been actively involved to build the capacity of the field workers. Around 100 Field workers completed the FW eLearning course including online and offline version.
 
BKMI, funded by USAID, is a technical assistance project jointly implemented by Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHCCP) and Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs.

Springboard – A Forum of Global Health Communication Professionals

Springboard is a global online platform for health communication professionals to connect, share ideas and resources and learn together to improve the practice of health communication.
 
The Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) - a global flagship project supported by USAID - has created Springboard where health communication professionals can discover and/or contribute innovative solutions to develop and promote health communication capacity.
 
Bangladesh Health Communication Springboard was launched on May 8, 2014 in Dhaka as a first country chapter of Springboard in Asia. The first Springboard country was launched in Zimbabwe in April 2014. After successful launching with 239 members efforts were put in to promote Bangladesh Springboard among health organizations including government, NGOs, private, stakeholders, universities, research organizations, public health foundation of Bangladesh etc. The promotional activities included drive for increased membership through various means and channels and creating online discussions on relevant and recent health issues like NCD, MCH, COPD, FP, Malaria, TB, HIV, Zika, Ebola, SDGs, Climate Change, Nutrition. Innovative efforts were employed to relentlessly look for health, nutrition and family planning and population related news in newspapers, journals, magazines and research journals to locate potential members. Other major efforts included emailing different universities faculties/students having public health department, health NGOs researchers, & communication specialists and Advocacy/policy makers; provide local job posting/events on Springboard job/event page; upload documents into Springboard resources e.g. DHS/Health Bulletin/Disease profile; promote ad agencies with their details on the Directory page; share Springboard android/iOS app link on different social media as periodic reminders.
 
To create and support country Springboards in Asia region BCCP was assigned as Asia Springboard Secretariat by HC3 for regional countries SBCC professional development towards better health of people in the region. Initiatives were taken to create country springboards e.g. Nepal and India - to coordinate and collaborate with them for better network structure. As regular activities of the Asia region Springboard secretariat global webinars broadcast by HC3 are attended, regional webinars are hosted with support from HC3 and Skype meetings are held periodically to exchange experience/ideas, communicate with other regional countries.
 
BCCP is pleased to invite Sangjog readers community to register on the Bangladesh Health Communication Springboard to associate in a broader health practitioners’ community both in country and in the region and engage in discussions/postings to help enhance SBCC professional growth.
 
Please visit and register on https://healthcomspringboard.org/register-for-springboard/   and press ‘Join the Group’ button on the link  https://healthcomspringboard.org/groups/bangladesh-health-communication-springboard/ to complete your membership.

Training Program on IPC/BCC, Community Mobilization & Outreach Activities

BCCP completed 5 batches 3-day training on IPC/BCC, Community Mobilization & Outreach Activities from July 26 to September 1, 2016 in Dhaka, Khulna, Munshigonj and Rajshahi. 137 Field Supervisor, Counselor and paramedics of 25 PA NGOs and Monitoring and Quality Assurance Officer from 11 PIU were present in this training.The objective of the training was to enhance the Interpersonal Communication skills of Counselors and Field Supervisors in order to conduct effective counseling session and outreach program; orient the participants how to use communication materials in counseling session; and equip the participants with tools and technique for organizing local level campaign.
 
Mr. Sabirul Islam, DPD (Admin & Training) and Mr. Nurul Absar, DPD (Finance) from UPHCSDP; and Chief Health Officers of Khulna and Rajshahi City Corporation attended these training programs as guests. They emphasized on increasing efforts on expanding interactions with the potential clients in the locality and explain them about the services delivered from the ‘Rainbow’ clinics so that urban dwellers increasingly avail the services from these centers.    
 
Technical Officers of BCCP facilitated various sessions on Communication, IPC, BCC, Counseling, use of BCC materials etc. The participants actively took part in the sessions. In addition, Capacity Building Specialist provided technical assistance to the training.

Bangladesh First-ever National Comprehensive SBCC Strategy for Health, Nutrition and Population Disseminated

Bangladesh’s first-ever National Comprehensive Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Strategy for Health, Nutrition and Population (HPN) sector officially disseminated on August 30, 2016 at CIRDAP Auditorium, Dhaka.
 
The program was organized with technical assistance from Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative (BKMI). Under USAID’s Global Health communication Capacity Collaborative Project, BKMI is jointly implemented by Johns Hopkins Center for communication Programs (CCP) and Bangladesh Center for Communication programs (BCCP).
 
In the presence of a large number of SBCC professionals and policy-makers representing different government, non-government, private and donor agencies, Director General of Family Planning Mohammad Wahid Hossain, accompanied by Additional Secretary (Public Health & World Health) Ms. Roxana Quader, Mr. Md Abdul Malek, Joint Secretary (Public Health-2), MoHFW; and Dr Faruk Ahmed Bhuiyan, Line Director, Non-Communicable Diseases, Director General of Health Services, unveiled the strategy among a huge round of applause.
 
As the Chair of the event, Mr Hossain appreciated the initiative taken by the MoHFW under Ms Roxana Quader.  He thanked BKMI, CCP and BCCP for their continued support.
 
In her welcome address Guest of Honor Additional Secretary Ms Quader mentioned that based on the recommendation from the Mid-term Review of the HPN Sector Development Program 2011-16, this Comprehensive SBCC Strategy has been developed for the effective implementation of high-quality SBCC activities throughout Bangladesh. This strategy is a “pathway towards a theory-based, consistent, coordinated and audience-specific SBCC.” A highly participatory process has been followed in developing the SBCC Strategy, she added.
 
Ms Quader expressed her gratitude to USAID-funded BKMI for their critical role in conceptualizing the content of the strategy, and then from developing the initial draft to finalizing and printing it involving key stakeholders from different ministries and directorates, international and national NGOs, private and donor organizations. She thanked everyone for their time and contribution.
 
During open discussion different stakeholders shared their feelings and comments that developing this strategy before finalizing next HPN sector development program is a timely initiative.  It would help harmonize SBCC activities and contribute towards improved SBCC for the wellbeing of the people of Bangladesh. BKMI provided technical assistance to develop Bangladesh’s first-ever Comprehensive National SBCC Strategy.
 
More than 100 senior level representatives from different government organizations including ministries and directorates, international and national NGOs, private and donor organizations and media professionals attended the event.

Role of Banks in e-GP and Way-Forward

A seminar titled “Role of Banks in e-GP and Way-Forward” was held in Dhaka on September 29, 2016. The seminar was organized by CPTU with technical assistance of BCCP under Public Procurement Reform Project II (2nd revised).
 
The objective of the seminar was to discuss face to face various issues regarding payments through e-GP system, seek recommendations for widening bank services and rationalize the service charges taken by banks from tenderers. Officials of procuring entities, tenderers, senior executives of 42 banks having MoUs with CPTU, and journalists attended the seminar.
 
A H M Mustafa Kamal, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Planning, attended the seminar as Chief Guest. Mr. M A Mannan, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning was present as Special Guest. Mr. Shitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank and Mr. Qimiao Fan, Country Director of the World Bank were also present as Special Guests. Mr. Mohammad Shams-Ul Islam, Managing Director, Agrani Bank Limited and Mr. Muhammed Ali, Managing Director of the United Commercial Bank Limited, (UCBL) also attended the seminar as Guests.
 
Mr. Farid Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Secretary, IME Division, Ministry of Planning, presided over the seminar. Director General of CPTU, Mr. Md Faruque Hossai inaugurated the seminar and made key-note presentation. He expressed his hope to convert all manual system of public procurement to online-based e-tendering system.
 
The Honorable Minister acknowledged the role of the World Bank for its continuous support for the materialization and growth of the e-GP project. He also called everyone’s attention to reform the banking sector and spoke about the need to lower corporate loan interest rates in an effort to stimulate economic growth and sustainability.
 
The Secretary of IMED, Mr Farid Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury spoke on the progress of e-GP untill now and mentioned that 450 institutes so far have been brought under e-GP.  As many as 23,763 contractors have been registered and 63237 bids were placed amounting more than BDT 55000 crores. By the December 2016, 1233 procuring entities will be brought under e-GP service wing.
 
The Planning Minister launched CPTU Mobile App on Public Procurement in the seminar. The Mobile App is available at http://cptu.gov.bd/mobapp.aspx or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cptu